Mudd's Passion

DVD, Star Trek: The Animated Series (Mudd's Passion)

Another episode, another sequel, another returning guest character from 'TOS.' But also, unfortunately, another more cartoonish example from the series. In spite of it being a Saturday morning cartoon we're not spared such adult concepts as 'the hangover' or sleazy Harry Mudd and his love crystals, as well as having to save him from an actual stoning, to add to other highly questionable choices in the series such as sympathy for the Devil in 'The Magicks of Megas-Tu'! We'd encountered Sarek, Amanda, Kor, Cyrano Jones and now it's that nefarious scoundrel Harcourt Fenton Mudd who carries the episode. It does help further tie the series to its parent, and it's good to hear Roger C. Carmel again, even though he was the very worst example of a 23rd Century human (though not a murdering, violent criminal as the twisted 'Discovery' made him). He's back to his old tricks of offering solutions to love problems. Back in 'Mudd's Women' he was giving the ladies a drug to make them feel more attractive, but this time it's some alien concoction that actually does make men and women love each other, though with a sting in the tail that after a short while it turns to hate.

You'd think the crew would have learned not to trust this swindler, especially someone as levelheaded as Nurse Chapel, but it's good that they play on her eternal affection for Mr. Spock, one of the hallmarks of the character. She hasn't lost any of her passion in this direction and Mudd plays on it like a harp - captured on a planet where he's trying once again to con some miners, they put him in the Brig which is shown to have some kind of forcefield over the door, but he talks his way into Chapel's confidence, allowing her a free sample, appealing to her as a scientist to try it out. She's sensible enough to hold a Phaser on him as he hands it to her, but she doesn't notice that he snitches the Phaser, typical of the old rogue, using it to overload the field. While on the subject of Starfleet's favourite hand weapon, I noticed Spock using it in an innovative new way when protecting themselves from the irate miners: he cuts a channel in the ground between them, which I don't think I've ever seen done before.

We see more of the Enterprise's Shuttle Bay with various types of shuttlecraft, one of which Mudd steals (we'd already heard that he escaped from the robot planet in 'I, Mudd' by taking someone's ship, though they didn't elaborate on how that ship came to be there), though it looks a bit different from the traditional Galileo 7 type of vessel. They take liberties with the canon for him to be able to access a shuttle - apparently now everyone carries ID cards around and he snaffled Chapel's, then went somewhere on the ship where a computer allowed a new photo to be taken and imprinted on this card! Not very intelligent computer, is it? And if you can do that then it's not great security on a starship, either! Not to mention there was no alarm when he cut himself out of the Brig! The episode also degenerates into a 'Star Wars' episode with giant rock alligators chasing them around on this planet that Mudd was planning to maroon Chapel on now he doesn't need her as a hostage, and it becomes a bit of a limp ending after a promising beginning.

While it's fun to have Harry Mudd again, and I appreciate the effort they went to, to get back the original actor, they should have done more with him somehow. Saying that, it is a good episode for Majel Barrett, as Chapel is clearly the main character, plus she gets to voice M'Ress, who falls for Scotty when one of the crystals gets into the air ducts aboard the Enterprise, though for some reason she doesn't purr any more. Maybe it was proving too tiring to add those onto every sentence? There's even one of those sequences when two characters voiced by the same actor talk to each other, when Chapel and M'Ress talk over the comm. Barrett also plays the Rigelian Hipnoid masquerading as the blonde 'Miss Elf' that Mudd uses in his demonstration to the miners, so she earned her pay this episode! Strangely, Uhura is seen in one Bridge shot, but subsequently M'Ress replaces her for the rest of the episode - perhaps Uhura's shift had ended? She is mentioned by McCoy while he tries to impress some woman with boasts about all the people he's saved, but neither Nichols, nor George Takei's Sulu have any lines. Arex gets a little more, taking out some special lute and playing on the Bridge, while Scotty is also back in command on same. But it is quite a forgettable episode all told, in spite of the lovely art style that it's always a joy to see.

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